Why a Summerside man wants your photos inside Three Oaks school

As renovations get underway at Three Oaks Senior High School inSummerside, P.E.I., plans are being made to preserve the memories of several murals painted on the school's concrete walls years ago by art and music teacher Thomas Hamilton-Irving.

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Hamilton-Irving's son, Tony, who grew up in Summerside and now lives in Alberta, has put out a call on Facebook for friends on P.E.I. to send him photos of the murals so they can be preserved and remembered. Thomas died when his son, Tony was just 16 years old.

What dad wanted was to have people walk through the doors and see not only beauty in the hallway, but beauty that represented what the school was all about. Tony Hamilton-Irving

"These murals were incredible, in terms of their detail," Hamilton-Irving told CBC Mainstreet's Angela Walker, explaining that his father created a mural for each of the core subjects taught at Three Oaks including English, math, social studies and physical education,as well as extracurricular activities like student council, drama and sports.

Hamilton-Irving has been touched by the large number of people who have already responded to his post, offering to go to the school and take photos of the artwork.They also shared fond memories of helping the senior Hamilton-Irving paint the murals.

"What dad wanted was to have people walk through the doors and see not only beauty in the hallway, but beauty that represented what the school was all about," Hamilton-Irving said.

Fond memories

The artist did not sign the worksbut instead hid his initials, T.H.I., within the paintings, his son shared.

"So I remember the day that I was standing on the upper level of the school and I looked at the image of Einstein representing the sciences, and all of a sudden I went 'Oh my word, there's dad's initials in his hair!'" Hamilton Irving recalled.

School officials said it's not yet clear if the murals will be destroyed during the renovations, but the school is doing a photo library of the building as it now exists that will likely contain some of the murals.

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